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golf rankings

Every now and then, on a Tuesday morning, I check out the latest golf rankings.

It all started in 1992 when those two likeable Maori lads, Michael Campbell and Philip Tataurangi, led New Zealand to the world amateur title (the Eisenhower Trophy). I've always enjoyed them and been following their fortunes ever since.

It does not make great reading this morning!

Tataurangi is ranked 914 and Campbell is ranked 949 and so both are likely to fall out of the Top 1000 in the next few weeks. Tataurangi has had some dreadful injuries and Campbell's fall is so dramatic, having been ranked in the Top 20 for awhile.

But other countries caught my eye this morning...

The USA has four of the top five golfers and if things remain on the same trajectory it is only a matter of weeks before Tiger Woods loses his number one ranking. But with only five golfers in the Top 20, there has been a sharp decline in American golf in the last twelve months.

Conversely, the most dramatic transformation in the same time frame has been from ENGLAND (and also GREAT BRITAIN). Six of the Top 20 are English, while nine are British. For all the flak that British sport attracts, this is a remarkable turnaround.

Other nations in decline are the AUSTRALIANS (now only one in the Top 30) and the NEW ZEALANDERS (for the first time in years - maybe ever, I suspect - we have no one in the Top 200). Another nation on the rise is SOUTH AFRICA (five in the Top 30)...